COLUMBUS, Ohio  Republican John McCain has been slow to take advantage of his potential head start for the presidency against Democrats, who are better organized and generate more excitement among voters.

McCain enters a November-focused campaign with distinct disadvantages, his aides and advisers acknowledge: his party's unpopular incumbent president, his unwavering support for the war in Iraq and the Democrats' unmistakable fundraising potential. Yet the Arizona senator and his party have inched toward blunting the shortcomings instead of racing to erase them.

"This has given us time," said Frank Donatelli, vice chairman of the Republican National Committee and a veteran political adviser. "This has been like Washington at Valley Forge. We're going to be stronger for it."

"Going to," though, seems to be the new watchwords of the campaign. They are going to compete aggressively in Ohio, the state that put President Bush over the top in 2004. They are going to have a substantial staff. They are going to build a broad coalition to reverse the tide that gave Democrats wins in 2006.

Going to. Just not yet.

McCain's national headquarters took more than two months to approve budgets for state-based operations. Officials kept aides in early states, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, on the payroll but without clear assignments. They also frustrated some of those aides and supporters with a pace that is opposite of the way Bush ran his two successful national campaigns.

"In a lot of the states, we had folks on the ground September of the year before," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who was Bush's chief spokesman for swing states during 2004. "We did it, literally, precinct by precinct, and folks were doing it street by street."

The private frustration is starting to bleed into public fretting, especially as Democrat Barack Obama this week called together supporters in swing states for meetings about November. In Iowa, Colorado, Florida and elsewhere, aides and volunteers planned to meet soon about the fall's election -- even before Obama has secured the necessary delegates to be the nominee.

Obama kept his storefront office in downtown Columbus after his March 4 primary loss and invited backers there Thursday "to discuss our plans for the coming weeks as we make the transition from the primary season to the general election campaign," according to the public invitation.

McCain's campaign is still looking for office space here and is weighing whether to even open offices in some states.

"McCain was here just last week," said former Sen. Mike DeWine, one of McCain's advisers in this must-win state. "Flash comes when the candidate comes."

But his advisers know those flashes are dim compared with Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Obama and their nominating contest. By the time the Democrats resolve their marathon, they will have in place organizations in all 50 states -- even reliably Republican states such as Tennessee and Texas.

"They had such a contested race in Ohio only a few months ago; our contest was largely wrapped up by February, and by March there was not a whole lot of organization building for Republicans," said Madden, who worked for McCain rival Mitt Romney's failed bid. "John McCain has been forced to go from a one-state to a national strategy very quickly."

McCain's aides vigorously dispute that he has been slow since collecting enough delegates March 4 to claim the nomination. They note that he has traveled to battleground states, such as Florida, Colorado and New Mexico. They have put TV ads up and have been trying to mend relationships within the party.

"There's a lot of things going on. Understand, we're a long ways away from the actual ballot," DeWine said. "At this point, the work is behind the scenes."

Yet, for all the optimism, the campaign's on-the-ground operations remain in pieces. No one expects a functioning operation in battleground states until summer -- at the earliest. Instead of sending staffers into the states, campaign leaders sent them to Washington for a getting-to-know-the-senator session with panel discussions about McCain's style. Instead of putting them to work building databases of voters and potential supporters, the campaign leaders told them to sit tight.

"If they don't think there's anything to be gained by having an office up and running on May 1 instead of June 1, they save how many thousands of dollars?" said Reed Galen, McCain's former deputy campaign manager who left last summer.

Much of the struggle has been about money. McCain's campaign imploded last year amid massive debt and has since regained its footing. He has increased his fundraising appearances and, when combined with the Republicans' Victory Fund, McCain and allies have raised more money than the Democratic National Committee and Obama.

"He was flat broke at the beginning of March. He now has almost $25 million in the bank; the RNC has doubled its cash reserve," Donatelli said. "The time has not been wasted."

The committee on Tuesday reported having $40.1 million in the bank. The Democratic National Committee had $4.4 million. The RNC raised $15.7 million in April compared with $4.7 million by the DNC.

Even so, Republicans worry that McCain missed a chance to beat Obama with organization -- the way he trounced the better-funded Romney in New Hampshire to revive his campaign.

Donatelli said the campaign and the national Republicans will ramp up operations next month.

Before that happens, though, Obama supporters will have gone door to door to register hundreds of thousands of voters coast to coast, particularly in swing states.

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